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Friday, January 28, 2011

Essay on Hockey

Essay on Hockey

Hockey is a fast, exciting sport played by two teams on a sheet of ice called a rink. Each team has six players on the ice, one goalie, two defensemen, two wingers, and one center man.

The players skate up and down the ice shooting or passing a hard rubber disk called a puck with sticks. They score points by hitting the puck into the net.

Hockey is much faster and swifter than any other sport. As the players streak across the ice, their powerful shots and passes can send the puck faster than 100 miles [160 kilometers] per hour. A goalkeeper on each team defends his net from the puck going in. They must often make quick slides across the on their skates, stomachs, knees or backs to stop the puck from going into the net. A puck that crosses the goal line is a called a goal and scores a point for the other team.

The side that scores the most goals wins the game. To keep the action fast, hockey has an unusual rule. It is the only major sport that allows players to change or substitute during play. The game is rough and includes lots of hitting and some fights, although fighting is against the rules.

The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Arabs, perhaps among the earliest of stick-and-ball games, played forms of hockey. A sport similar to hockey, called Hurling, is known to have been played during the 1st millennium in Ireland, and other Europeans in the Middle Ages adopted similar sports. The historians don’t know for certain where the name Hockey came from. But most of them thought the name hockey have been adapted by the English from the French word hoquet (shepherd's crook). How ever was the name first given to the sport in the 18th century, but was not in common usage until the 19th century.

Hockey then started in Canada in the mid-1800's. By the 1900's it had become Canada's national sport. Since then, hockey has become popular in many other countries including Russia, Sweden and the United States. Hockey is grouped in many different divisions including minor hockey, which is grouped into age categories, SJHL, WHL, OHL and IHL, which involve the smaller cities in province or state, and NHL, which involve the bigger, better known cities in Canada and the United States. Each period begins with a face-off at the center face-off spot. A face-off also starts play again after it has been stopped for any reason. During play, the puck must normally be kept moving. If it is hit over the boards, held by the goalie, out of the referee's sight, frozen between opposing players, or is otherwise temporarily out of play, an official blows a whistle for a face-off. A player may move the puck along the ice, pass it to a teammate, or shoot it at the goal, but rules limit these plays in certain ways. One extremely important rule states that no player of the attacking team may be in the attacking zone ahead of the puck. One player must carry or shoot the puck across the attacking blue line before any other player on the team crosses the blue line.

For violations of this rule, an official signals the offending team offside and conducts a face-off in the neutral zone. A player may pass to a teammate anywhere in the same zone. The player may also pass from the defending zone to a teammate in their team's half of the neutral zone. If the pass is received past the centerline an official signals the pass offside and conducts a face-off where the play began.

Hockey requires a variety of skills. They include checking, skating, passing, stick handling and shooting. Checking is the way a player takes the puck away from the opponent. There are two main types of checks: stick checks and body checks. For a stick check the player uses his stick to hook or poke the puck away from the opponent. In a body check the player bumps against the opponent with a hip or a shoulder to try any block the opponent's progress or throw the opponent off balance. Both stick checking and body checking are allowed only against a player in control of the puck or the last player to control it. Skating is the most important hockey skill. Players must be able to turn sharply, skate backwards and perform many other maneuvers while skating at top speed. They must be able to do this with their head up and while stick handling the puck.

Passing occurs when a player who has the puck passes it to another player. In most cases the players use their sticks to propel the puck toward the receiver. These passes are either flat passes or flip passes. To make a flat pass the player sends the puck traveling along the surface of the ice. To make a flip pass the player causes it to rise off the ice to avoid interception by an opponent. Sometimes the passer simply leaves the puck behind, so that a teammate can get it, this is called a drop pass.

Stick handling is the use of the stick to control the puck. The player first moves the puck with one side of the blade and then with the other side while skating. The player makes some sweeps of the stick some wide and some narrow. In this way the player keeps the opponent guessing as to the next move and also makes it difficult to steal the puck.

Shooting is the skill needed to drive the puck into the net and score goals. Most shots are either wrist shots or slap shots. In a wrist shot the blade does not leave the ice. The player uses strong wrist action to propel the puck. For a slap shot the player raises the stick for a back swing and brings it down against the puck with great force. Slap shots are more powerful but less accurate than wrist shots.

Offside plays and icing account for most violations of the rules. For these violations, the offending team risks losing control of the puck in the resulting face-off. For more serious violations, players receive penalties ranging from two minutes in the penalty box to removal from the game, but each team must always have at least four players on the ice. If a third player is penalized while two teammates are in the penalty box, a substitute may replace the player on the ice. A teammate may serve the goaltender's penalty.

Hockey has five main kinds of penalties: minor penalties, major penalties, misconduct penalties, match penalties and penalty shots.

Minor penalties are given for violations like holding, tripping or hooking resulting in two minutes in the penalty box. The team must play short-handed until the time is up or the other team scores. But if the same minor penalty is awarded against players on both teams they sit for the full to minutes and two different players may replace them on the ice.

Major penalties are given mainly for fighting or cutting or drawing blood with a stick, they result in five minutes in the penalty box. The penalized team must play short-handed for the full five minutes, but if a player on each team receives a major penalty at the same time, substitutes may replace both players on the ice.Misconduct penalties are given mainly toward the improper treatment towards an official, which results in ten minutes in the penalty box, but a substitute may replace the penalized player. A game misconduct penalty is given mainly for more serious offences against officials.

Match penalties are given for deliberately injuring or attempting to injure an opponent. The offending player is removed for the rest of the game and usually given extra penalty minutes depending on the severity of the incident, which a player on that team has to serve.

Penalty shots are free shots at the opposing goal defended by only the goalie. They are awarded against the defending team when an attacking player throws his stick or is pulled down from behind and is so prevented from taking the shot.

Those are the rules and regulations of the fun and exciting game of hockey.

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